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Everyone knows that it’s the official opposition’s duty to test, probe and, where appropriate, oppose Government policies but it shouldn’t be their role to rubbish the country and talk down the United Kingdom – Britain is not broken or bankrupt or bust as the Conservatives would have you believe, we face serious challenges like every other country in the world, but Britain is not broken.

We are a much fairer country than we were a decade ago, more tolerant and more unified and we want it to stay that way. Levels of trust among people within their local neighbourhood is higher than in 1997 and research shows that 80% agree that people of different backgrounds get on well in their area and three-quarters of all 3-19 year olds take part in sport, attend local clubs or make some commitment to their local communities.

The Tories talk down Britain but we know we live in a great country. Where there are problems they need real solutions, not glib headlines from a party that has made clear it would do nothing to provide real help. Britain is full of talented people who, with the right help, have limitless potential – rather than running Britain down. If we face the global downturn and other challenges together we can get through our current difficulties and come out the other end a fairer and better country.

The action we are taking to support the unemployed, particularly the young unemployed, gives real help to individuals and to the economy, but it is also vital if we are to avoid the kind of social consequences which threatened our area after the 1980’s recession when unemployment reached 3 million and in our local pit villages a quarter of young people were unemployed. Britain is not broken, but if we followed the Tory approach to the economic downturn there would be a real risk that it might be.

And Britain is a safer country than it was a decade ago. Overall crime is down by 39% since 1997; violent crime down 41% with the lowest murder rate for 20 years; with 25,000 more prison places dangerous criminals are more likely to go to prison and stay there for longer.

It’s true that we read about some pretty horrific crime incidents in our papers but the official statistics are encouraging and no less than here in Dover and Deal where our Police Commander has reported another set of crime figures which demonstrate the effectiveness of our local crime reduction strategy and demonstrate the advantages of community policing.

As well as continuing to invest in police on the beat – with 15,000 more police officers than in 1997 – we are actively targeting the crimes which worry people the most – knife crime and violent crime; rape and violence against women; crimes like burglary and robbery which were allowed to rise in previous recessions; and anti-social behaviour.

Like the vast majority of people born in these islands, I’m proud to be British and I don’t take kindly to people telling me my country is broken.